i think the point isn’t that it doesn’t exist outside of japan, but that japan does lots of it more than many other cultures and it seems to be a specifically important part of japanese conversation, the way there is emphasis on eye contact in the US (which has been a thorn in my side ever since i started going to school)
i do it more than most american english speakers (in fact in the US it’s sort of discouraged because it’s seen as interrupting) but japanese speakers do it more than me